Cricket

I must jump on the band wagon here I am afraid. Despite my regular refusal to admit to my base South African-ness it is at times of great defeat and victory in the sporting arenas that I must admit that I am far more moved by South African sport than any other.

This said I fear that I too must lend my voice to the cacophony of bitterness that must naturally follow such a dismal performance by Graham and his boys. I have heard the argument from some corners that we were always underdogs and that the Aussies were always going to trump us. Fair enough. However, there is beating and then there is humiliating.

When the two teams faced each other before the super 8's we lost to them but it was a proper game. Good run chase and good cricket. Then there was yesterday!

If the Proteas did not throw that game... Well I can only hope that they did and that they did so for enormous amounts of cash that have been ear-marked to ensure the entire team's offspring's education and futures! Otherwise South African cricket has gone the way of the Zimbabwean democratic process! The parallels between the obviously fault riddled omnipotence of Mogabi and the South African Cricket Selectors board could be drawn by any 12 year old who has ever held a bat in anger for their school or, dare I say it stood in a backyard with his mates, in the sun, playing the make-shift backyard version of the game. I mean who other than the Sri Lankan's would play Nell/Langeveld over Ntini? Where were Rudolph and McKenzie? There are questions a plenty here.

We could spend some time drawing parallels between Pollock's dismal effort four years ago and Smith's attempted captancy. But I will not as I see Pollock's errors 4 years ago as mistakes brought on by poor communications and even worse maths. But Smith's performance yesterday was as I have already said either the result of some intricate match fixing ring or simply the reason why you always look to the older more experienced people for leadership.

I am ending this with the feverant wish that South African sport in general will find its feet and start to be competitive again. I realise that this is perhaps to much to ask on the evidence of yesterday so I have a second wish if the later is not possible for any genies out there to grant me. The second prize is simple. Let me find someway to truly change my allegience - I would be happy to become an English supporter as even though they loose , and perhaps even more frequently than South African sides, at least these loses are honourable and not the result of what I strongly suspect to be dishonourable, suspect financial transactions.

Bring back the days of Hansie - at least then we threw games with some tact and dignity!